Elizabeth Jasper Morse, 10gg 1579–1655

This week I'm focusing on the Booth family tree.

Elizabeth Jasper Morse, 1579–1655, my ten times great grandmother!

BIRTH 30 JAN 1579 • Redgrave, Suffolk, England
DEATH 20 JUN 1655 • Medfield, Massachusetts Colony

Her parents were Richard Jasper and Rose Shepherd Jasper, according to my Ancestry chart...which often has to be revised for the people who are on it that lived this long ago. I was surprised to have some of the original settlers in the New England colonies on both my grandmother's trees.  My father's and grandfather's tree doesn't but has many early Virginia Colony settlers.

Elizabeth Jasper was the 5th child of 12 born to her mother. Actually the 4th had also been Elizabeth, but she didn't live beyond her first year. So when they had another daughter, they named her also Elizabeth.

Her birth date is a bit fuzzy in records, with several pointing out her birth as being in 1580 and at least one stating it was 1587 when she was born. However, Rachel had been born before 1587 so it wouldn't have been the practice of naming the next born female the same name as the child that died in that case.

She married Samuel Morse (1585-1654) in 1602. And then they had a large family of 13 children, at least according to the Ancestry records!

My nine times great grandfather, Capt. John Morse/Moss (1604-1707) was their 4th son. And yes, his dates are what are published in several sources, 103 years of life! I will honor him on his birth date.

I work on these people's lives, then check to see what some of the other Ancestry trees have about them. I just found one out of maybe a dozen, which has John's parents different, and his dying is much earlier, and he was married to another woman, and had a completely different set of children! That was John Moss, son of Thomas and I don't remember who. How confusing it is, that somehow a lot of descendants have these ancestors, and there were actually two John Mosses...

Memorial of first settlers landing in Newbury MA from 1635.

I'm glad to see notes like this:

According to ("Great Migration" V:170-177, published 2007 by NEHGS), Samuel was most probably the son of Rev.Thomas Morse of Foxearth, Co. Essex, England. Samuel was baptized in Boxted, Co. Essex on Jun 12, 1576. He died at Medfield, MA on Dec 5, 1654.

Note...he married Elizabeth Jasper at Redgrave, Co. Suffolk, England on Jun 29, 1602 and brought their 7 children with them, arriving at Watertown in 1635. Elizabeth is the daughter of Lancelot Jasper and Rose Shephard. Some info provided by Kevin Avery and J. Edwards. Source: Representative men and old families of southeastern Massachusetts: containing historical sketches of prominent and representative citizens and genealogical records of many of the old families. pg. 1774. Elizabeth and Samuel Morse had seven children: John, Daniel, Joseph, Abigail, Samuel, Jeremiah and Mary. Elizabeth's husband Samuel made his will on Oct. 2, 1654, "leaving all his estate....,to his wife, Elizabeth. His wife d. June 20, 1654, aged sixty-seven years. Genealogy and history of representative citizens of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, p. 363."

Did you notice what I did in that last paragraph? He was sick and writing his will Oct. 2, 1654, while Elizabeth, his wife, died June 20, 1654. And he named her his executor. Something in those dates is wrong! I would guess she was still alive in Oct. 1654...and died June 1655. (Remember the new year was March 15 when the year changed.)

Now how did the 7 children morph into 13? These are the ones that  appear in my Ancestry chart...Mary(1602-1620),Thomas(1603-1657), Samuel(1603-1688), John Moss(1604-1707), Sara(1605-1611), Elizabeth Morse Daniels(1606-1643), Jeremiah(1609-1619), Daniel(1610-1688), Abigail(1611-1683), Joseph(1615-1654), Eleanore Helena(1615-1694), Mary Morse Bullen(1620-1692), Jeremiah (1623- ?).

OK, we can leave out the ones who died before coming to America in 1635...namely Mary, Sara, and Jeremiah(1609-1619). That still leaves 10.

These are the ones mentioned in 1654 in Samuel's will: John, Daniel, Joseph, Abigail, Samuel, Jeremiah and Mary. And he mentions that Joseph had died in 1654 already, so he left his portion of his estate to Joseph's wife Ann. However, Ancestry has lots of records for Joseph's wife named Hannah. I'm not even going to start looking at that line, since it's not my direct ancestry.

There's no mention of Thomas, Elizabeth Morse Daniels, or Eleanore Helena. So I'm just going to add a big question mark to their names. It's always possible that married daughters had moved away and weren't in their father's will. Their oldest daughter, Mary, didn't seem to get married.

And the strange sad thing is all the mistaken children of Samuel Morse/Moss are used as links for other descendants and cousins. It's quite a responsibility to get it straightened out.

This post belongs to the Barbara Booth Rogers Family Tree. Photo shows Mataley Mozelle Rogers, and her mother Mozelle Booth Miller, and my sister Mary Beth Rogers.